Our Team

Joseph Bricker

A “tour de force” performer (Seen and Heard International), percussionist Joseph Bricker is the Associate Principal Timpanist/Percussion of the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops Orchestras. Prior to joining the CSO, Bricker was the percussion fellow with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago from 2019-2022. In addition to Cincinnati and the Civic Orchestra, he has performed with the Chicago, National, Dallas, Houston, and New World symphonies, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Metropolitan Opera, and several others. In the summers, he has held fellowships with the Verbier, Tanglewood, Pacific (Japan), and Aspen music festivals. As an educator, he was a Morse Teaching Artist Fellow at the Juilliard School’s Music Advancement Program, and has worked with organizations such as Notes for Peace, the Interlochen Arts Academy, Chicago Public Schools, the Aspen Music Festival, the Illinois Music Educators Association, and several others. Joe can also be heard as composer/performer on a 2017 advertisement for TaylorMade-Adidas featuring Tiger Woods, and has been the recipient of awards from the Zildjian Company, the Aspen Music Festival, National Public Radio, and the Skokie Valley Symphony. He received his Master of Music from DePaul University, studying with Cynthia Yeh, and his Bachelor of Music from the Juilliard School, studying with Greg Zuber.

Hannah Christiansen

Currently a member of the Varo String Quartet, violinist Hannah Christiansen performs regularly with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and the Washington Island Music Festival, and has appeared in recent seasons with Ensemble Dal Niente, the Ulster Orchestra (Belfast, Northern Ireland), SouthEastern Young Artists, F-PLUS, and the International Contemporary Ensemble. Hannah’s particular interest in nonstandard notation and extended technique has led her to residencies with the composition departments at Northwestern University and Roosevelt University; this same interest led her and percussionist Joe Bricker (Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra) to design From Scratch, an education program which introduces young musicians to contemporary music early in their careers. Hannah holds a degree in French Language and Literature from Oberlin College in addition to her violin studies at Oberlin Conservatory, Northwestern University, and DePaul University, and her major teachers are Milan Vitek, Gerardo Ribeiro, and Janet Sung.